Thursday, January 14, 2010

Movies: "Helping You Back on Your Feet."

The movie's marketing poster shows a simple solitary star with a Chinese character nested within it, and the by-line: "They are here to help." The Soviet threat could never have been couched so innocently in the original movie; the subtext of our disagreement with the Soviet Union was ideological, matters related not only to differing views on economic theory, but more fundamental questions regarding personal liberty and matters of our essential humanity. Consequently, the Red Dawn remake will have to walk a finer line, showing how a once symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship turns sour, to such an extent that one country chooses to invade the other.

The original movie paid only scant attention to American collaborators, preferring to focus on the valor of those who resisted; but amidst the city of Detroit so beset by economic calamities, scriptwriters could be easily forgiven were they to suggest that more citizens of Detroit might be tempted to join the ranks of the "liberators". The propaganda posters likely envision this, in particular one which shows the infamous Wall Street bull with a "Chimerica" flag driven through its heaving chest, the words "Fighting Corporate Corruption" boldly written across the poster. The original Red Dawn made no attempt to cast the invading Soviets as good guys; they were invaders bent on conquest. The new movie appears to go to some lengths to represent the Chinese as solutions to the most acute of American problems in the most severely hit of American cities.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'd say "not only to differing views on economic theory, but more fundamental questions regarding personal liberty and matters of our essential humanity" describes the differences between the States (and the entire Western world) and China quite well actually, the only difference is that there is no conflict yet (although I'm willing to bet that there will be one soon).

Heaven help me but I am intrigued. I like the idea of liberating Americans from Wall Street ala liberating iraq from dictators. it has a faint whiff of plausibility.

What really makes me curious is that the original was such a propaganda film that it makes my liberal friends laugh endlessly when we watch it. Cuban soldiers quoting gun control laws specifically as tools they used in finding the best armed citizens is high comedy.

I wonder if the writers will reveal that the reason America lost was because the president is a secret Muslim communist Chinese man.

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I have no pets. I own several ties, but rarely have a reason to wear any of them. I sing in the shower but can never remember the words, so I make them up as I go along, and they always end up being songs about showering. I collect slang dictionaries.